The Ezhava community, which constituted one-fifth of Travancore’s population, did not get even nominal representation in government jobs. Ezhavas who had acquired higher education had to go out of the country in search of work. Pointing out this, Dr. Travancore’s first medical graduate and a person who experienced the results of the government policy. A petition signed by 13,176 members of Palpu’s Lehda Ezhava community was submitted to Sri Moolam Tirunal Maharaja in September 1896.
The memorandum states that the reason for the social backwardness of the Ezhavas is their lack of representation in government service. The memorial also demanded that the Thirs, a community of similar social status, should be given employment under the British Government in the Malabar region and should be allowed all the rights and benefits enjoyed by their brothers who had converted to Christianity.
However, Diwan Shankara Subbaiyan rejected the demands of the petition. Frustrated with the government’s approach to the memorial, another petition (the Second Ezhava Memorial) was presented to the Viceroy, Lord Curzon, who visited Travancore in 1900. Although sympathetic to the demands, Britain was not interested in interfering in the day-to-day administration of Travancore, a vassal state. Although both the Ezhava memorials failed, the Ezhava memorials became a source of energy for the struggles to ensure social justice.
